


Chaapa'ai

by Izhilzha



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Angst, Dreams, Gen, Languages and Linguistics, Season/Series 02
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-02-02
Updated: 2005-02-02
Packaged: 2017-10-07 23:33:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 321
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/70400
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Izhilzha/pseuds/Izhilzha
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>Sometimes Daniel thinks that the first translation team got closer to the essence of the word.</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	Chaapa'ai

Sometimes Daniel thinks that the first translation team got closer to the essence of the word. _Chaapa'ai_ is an awfully poetic term for something as essentially practical as the mechanism for 'Gate travel. But it suits the artifact, with its circle of wavering light like a slice of ocean between him and the stars. _Door to the heavens_ might be a happy medium. In that disc, the blur of our world fades into unknown silence, as the ripples of quantum mechanics spiral down an endless avenue of escape. _Infinite light promises an infinite lightening,_ he caught himself thinking once.

He rarely sees it so with his waking eyes, anymore. Too busy reviewing linguistic or cultural data from the latest mission, or psyching himself up for their next encounter with an unknown people, to bother looking closely. The Stargate is just that: a simple passage from one place to the next, not a thing in itself. A moment in time, not something to be pondered. Like the side roads on a long commute to work, where familiarity causes all attractions to become invisible.

The funerals remind him, the wreath disappearing beneath the surface of that shining slice of light.

And in his dreams, it stands alone. Its shimmer beckons, promising ease, rest, repose. _Chapaa'ai_ never has any definition here beyond that first, flawed one. The one that he disproved. _Door to heaven_. His feet are anchored to the ramp, and he cannot look away. There is nothing but a longing to take those few steps, to throw himself past the event horizon, to release the weights he chose to carry. For those moments, all his world is blue and silver.

But it always fades. Darkness takes him, or surreal bronze landscapes. Or, most often, yellow sand, black hair, soft skin, and laughter.

He wakes with tears on his cheeks, and thinks of Sha're, and does not remember the infinite possibility of escape.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Chaapa'ai (The disney world Remix)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/201467) by [LaterTuesday](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LaterTuesday/pseuds/LaterTuesday)




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